What is the Tomatometer®?

The Tomatometer rating – based on the published opinions of hundreds of film and
television critics – is a trusted measurement of movie and TV programming quality
for millions of moviegoers. It represents the percentage of professional critic reviews
that are positive for a given film or television show.

From the Critics

From RT Users Like You!

Fresh

The Tomatometer is 60% or higher.

Rotten

The Tomatometer is 59% or lower.

Certified Fresh

Movies and TV shows are Certified Fresh with a steady Tomatometer of 75% or
higher after a set amount of reviews (80 for wide-release movies, 40 for
limited-release movies, 20 for TV shows), including 5 reviews from Top Critics.

The Deadly Companions (Trigger Happy) Videos

The Deadly Companions (Trigger Happy) Photos

Movie Info

Sam Peckinpah's first feature as director is this modest Western, taking place in the late 1860s. Yellowleg (Brian Keith), a former sergeant in the Union army, is obsessed with tracking down Turk (Chill Wills), a Rebel army deserter who, during the War Between the States, tried to scalp him as he lay wounded on a battlefield. Yellowleg finds Turk and his sidekick Billy (Steve Cochran) in a cantina and convinces them to help him rob a bank. They journey to Gila City, where the bank is located, and find that another group of bank robbers are also in Gila City to rob the same bank. During a shoot-out with the other bank robbers, Yellowleg accidentally kills the nine-year-old son of dance-hall hostess Kit Tilden (Maureen O'Hara). Remorseful at having caused the death of Kit's son, Yellowleg forces Turk and Billy to accompany him through Apache territory to bury Kit's son at the gravesite of her husband in the ghost town of Siringo. When Billy attacks Kit, Yellowleg throws him out of their camp. Then Turk deserts. As Kit and Yellowleg finally reach Siringo, Yellowleg realizes that he is in love with her. But then, Billy and Turk reappear, having robbed the bank in Gila City, leading to a final confrontation between Yellowleg and Turk.

As the deadlier of the refugee criminals, Steve Cochran is almost as mean as his colleague, Chill Wills, is picturesque. Their resourceful efforts would be more effective if the drama, as directed by Sam Peckinpah, did not move at the pace of a hearse.

Audience Reviews for The Deadly Companions (Trigger Happy)

½

110913: This could've been a good film if it wasn't so disjointed. Some great actors portraying neat characters, decent picture quality but poor sound, cool costuming - I especially liked Turk's dress and character. The story kind of made no sense but it was very spaghetti western like. Cool a little bit.

John Redshaw

½

Extremely underwhelming. The trouble is that there is just too many things here we know about or have seen before. Reminded me a lot of The African Queen, Two Mules for Sister Sara and True Grit...not to mention the fact that Brian Keith is almost a caracature of John Wayne in this. Deadly slow in pace without much to keep you interested, it's difficult to believe Peckinpah made this - but then again, this was his debut as a director so I can't discredit it completely.

Tim Salmons

Super Reviewer

A couple of good moments, but everything good gets better in Ride the High Country

Adam Mahler

Super Reviewer

½

Peckinpah made a career by being unconventional in his films. And if the studios had let the man do his job we (the audience) would have been the better for it. We can only grimace at what happened to [i]Major Dundee, [/i]the studio chopped the vision of Sam's and took his film and sliced it up until it was confusing, thankfully the new re-release help to restore the director's original vision. We can begin to see Sam's poetic vision very early in his career. His first feature film, which is often an overlooked film within the Western genre, but by no means a poor film. It is a part of the new westerns in the sixties, a change from the bigger than life heroes of the fifties and forties. [i]The Deadly Companions[/i] marks the beginning of Sam's career, and is a great insight of the things to come.
The main character, "yellowleg" played by Brian Keith. He represents Sam's unconventionality with concern to the western hero. Never have I seen such a hapless hero in any movie that was not a comedy. This man has troubles with his demons, such as an irrational longing for revenge. Keith saves a tinhorn from being hanged only so that he can kill him slowly later, or so he hopes to. He will never get the revenge he wants, and this is the barrier in his life that he overcomes. In this sense his failure is his success, but not everything in this film works for his credit.
The way Keith performs on the screen gives the semblance of a strong character that is in command, but this can hardly be the case. He can barely keep his two companions under control, and he is often helpless in the film. He only kills one person in this film, Maureen O'Hara's son. He did this while trying to kill a bank robber, but because his should was injured he was unable to aim properly, and in his failure shot a boy. This tragedy transfers the revenge story to a journey story. Maureen then wants to bury her son deep in Apache territory next to her husband, and Keith, through his guilt, follows her to protect her. Along the way their are several scenes that further show Keith's impotence as a viable hero.
HIs lack of command is apparent, and his inability to properly fire a gun is also to his demerit. Keith has an innocent look to his face, a look that undermines his strong character. His round face and childish appearance are an unconventional in the face of a archetypal western hero. Later in the film, Keith and Maureen are being stalked by an indian, and in a move to protect Maureen, Keith leaves the cave to wait in the dark for the indian. Somehow the indian got by and went into the cave where Maureen is. She sees the indian and kills him. Keith comes back and sees that he failed as a protector, as she had to protect herself. In most westerns the hero would have had the honor of dispatching the bad guy, but in [i]The Deadly Companions [/i]the woman protects herself, as the hero is inept in this film. Keith is at times effiminate and Maureen seems to be more masculine.
The final shootout has Chill Wills killing his fancy partner and then begin firing at Keith, and Keith of course is shooting back and moving in for the kill. At this point the cavalry arrive and take the kill from Keith and hang Wills. THe hero fails in everything.